Tim Rogers @ Rosemount Hotel
w/ Rachael Dease
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Former Schvendes leader Rachael Dease doesn’t find herself playing too many gigs these days. With her time taken up writing scores and theatre over the past few years, it was a rare opportunity to hear her latest batch of tunes. Both performers tonight would be considered wordsmiths, but it is Dease who is the most literary and dark. Brandishing her signature autoharp, and with pushbutton beats Dease was captivating.
In town as a precursor to the release of his new album that tells the tale of a retiring actor, Tim Rogers took a theatrical approach to the evening. The garish suit that Rogers was wearing hinted at his love of The Replacements, but was more likely as a result of Rogers channeling his inner cabaret singer early for Age (A Couple Of Swells).
Usually the leader of a rock and roll band, it was a different beast for Rogers this time around. He was joined on stage by Clio Renner on keys and Xani Kolac who offered violin and roots-tinged harmonies. The order of the evening was to get through as many of the songs from An Actor Repairs from the get go, before easing into well known tunes later in the night.
Rogers was at his most autobiographical as he reminisced about his youth on The Umpires Son. With its earthy narrative and sometime rapid fire vocal it is a song that is destined to be a staple in the Rogers set for many a year. Centrepiece of the new record is the duet One More Late Night Phone Conversation, and it was a typically sad Rogers tale that was delivered faithfully with Renner.
Rogers didn’t spare the platitudes when it came to his bandmates for the night and invited each of them to play a song off their latest release. Renner gave the heartfelt Into Other Arms an airing, but it was Xani Kolac who fared best with her country flavoured Could You Love Me. The two sides of Rogers were on display as he joked with the bar staff, chastised a woman for staring at her phone throughout the gig and took punters to task when they spoke during tunes. Whether he is in lover or fighter mode, Rogers is always entertaining.
Rogers gave the punters a truncated greatest hits set to finish things off with Paragon Cafe and Happy Anniversary putting punters in good cheer. A lounge version of Heavy Heart was well received, before Rogers pulled deeper from the You Am I well for Jaimme’s Got A Girl and Berlin Chair with a slice of Norwegian Wood thrown in for good measure. It wasn’t Rogers most red blooded performance, but in any form he demands attention.
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
Photos by Paul Dowd Photography
